Pushing on the pegs to help you lean

[Jer]

Over the last 100 miles or so (I'm about 600 into my motorcyle career) I've been learning the fine art of pushing down on your foot pegs to start the bike leaning. Until I started doing this I did what I imagine a lot of new riders do, and thats shift your weight higher up.

Pushing down on the right peg when leaning right, left when leaning left, really makes a big difference in your leaning turns.

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by Jer

Pushing down on the right peg when leaning right, left when leaning left, really makes a big difference in your leaning turns.

It's all about weight transfer, or more correctly, shifting the center of mass. Exactly HOW you accomplish that makes no difference functionally; the best way for YOU is the way you feel most comfortable.

Consiously leaning your body into a turn is the most drastic way to shift weight.
Other, less drastic methods REALLY shift your body mass too......just a LOT less and the result in more subtle. "Pressing down" on the peg is one way. Pushing on the tank with your outside knee is another. If, however, you could manage to do either of those WITHOUT shifting any of your body mass at the same time, it would accomplish exactly nothing.

Racers actually put most of their weight on the OUTSIDE peg.......to kind of balance the effect of shifting your ass off to the inside. :biggrin:

[Water Warrior 2]

Originally Posted by Easy Rider

It's all about weight transfer, or more correctly, shifting the center of mass. Exactly HOW you accomplish that makes no difference functionally; the best way for YOU is the way you feel most comfortable.

Consiously leaning your body into a turn is the most drastic way to shift weight.
Other, less drastic methods REALLY shift your body mass too......just a LOT less and the result in more subtle. "Pressing down" on the peg is one way. Pushing on the tank with your outside knee is another. If, however, you could manage to do either of those WITHOUT shifting any of your body mass at the same time, it would accomplish exactly nothing.

Racers actually put most of their weight on the OUTSIDE peg.......to kind of balance the effect of shifting your ass off to the inside. :biggrin:

The best way to set up for a curve/lean is to push on the handle bar. Push on the right side slightly for a right curve/lean and the left side for a left curve/lean. Sounds counter intuitive but does work. Racers will load the outside peg which allows the bike to be more upright at a given speed which translates into higher speeds when fully leaned over. Proficient Motorcycling (get a copy if you haven't already) goes into great explanation of push steering(also known as counter steering).

[Jer]

yep. I'm familiar with counter steering. That comes just before leaning on the peg for me. Push right, bike starts to tip right, weight on right peg to help it go.

[patrick_777]

I find that pushing the inside peg actually shifts body weight to the outside of the bike, which is counterproductive to the natural lean in the turn. Very much like what WW and EZ said, at countersteering speeds (12+mph generally), weight transfer needs to be to the inside of the turn. There's a fine line between setting your weight over the inside peg and actively pushing the peg toward the ground (or standing on it). The same principle that makes countersteering, counter-intuitive is that to do one thing, you have to technically do the opposite of what would be "normal" (ie: turn the bars left to turn right, push on the outside peg to weight your inside peg, etc.)

Now, most of this technique is more suited to sport and standard riding, of which riding the GZ is neither. Unless you're able to get most of your weight off the seat, then weight shifting should occur mainly with your waist and upper torso. Keeping your butt firmly planted on the seat, you can have better technique with a shoulder drop and grip push toward the turn, letting your back stay parallel to the vertical line of the bike throughout the turn. It helps to shift your neck and head a little to the inside ("peeking around the handlebars"), and keeping your eyes mostly level with the actual horizon, that way your brain isn't confused with the conflicting inputs from your eyes and inner ear (balance).

[Jer]

when I say push on the right side peg, I dont mean push on it to launch my weight to the left. I mean push down on it to bring my weight to the right.

Just after countersteering left to tip the bike right.

Regardless if I am able to communicate it to you guys, its working.

[roncg41677]

I've found on gentler curves trying to push the handlebars right or left to countersteer almost isn't worth the effort. Maybe I'm doing it a little, but it really feels more natural to just lean the bike a bit. That may just be me.

On shorter radius turns I'm definitely employing the "press left", "press right" technique. That was one of the most valuable things I learned at the BRC course. :2tup: I'll have to try what you're suggesting, Jer.

[Jer]

An example of where I notice it helps is longer shallow turns.

I find that I tend to drift to the outside. In reality all I'm doing is transferring weight and leaning more I'm sure, but conciously pressing down on the inside footpeg tightens up the turn and I dont drift to the outside any more.

[Moedad]

I turn.

[Jer]

Me too!

Keeps me from hitting things.